


Waking Up Alone

by RedLeopard19



Series: From Friends to Strangers [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Female Steve Rogers, Genderswap, Light Angst, Steve Rogers Has PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2020-01-10 21:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18416564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLeopard19/pseuds/RedLeopard19
Summary: Stephanie "Stevie" Barnes is facing pregnancy alone in an unfamiliar world, in what feels like only weeks after her husband died. If that wasn't stressful enough, Nick Fury wants her to fight an alien invasion and retrieve and item she thought she'd hidden from the world.





	1. Repeating Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All rights go to Marvel.

Stevie stares at yet another how-to manual for the appliances in her SHIELD issue apartment. It had been less than a week, and Stevie had privately had four break downs. So much had changed while she was asleep, and it was overwhelming.

 

She was torn between feeling grateful and insulted that SHIELD had put search restrictions on her computer. On one hand, too much information at once was what was upsetting her to begin with, but on the other hand, it was only SHIELD approved sources that she saw, and Stevie had no idea what SHIELD approved of. Sure, Peggy and Howard founded the organization, but Howard was dead, and Peggy was sick and old, so Stevie had no way of asking them or knowing that SHIELD was still what they wanted.

 

One thing Stevie was definitely grateful for was the fact that SHIELD had kept quiet about her being thawed out from the ice. She had gone down in history as the greatest feminist icon of her century. Her going from a skinny unremarkable girl, to a “bombshell” chorus girl, to the most famous soldier in the world, was inspiring for women everywhere. Her name was used in feminist movements as often as it was used to justify whatever the government wanted her to appear to be. Seeing her name used for so many things, both of which she did and did not approve of, hurt. During the war, Captain America was a symbol that was extremely important. Now, Captain America was a legend of godlike proportions. Everyone on had a preconceived idea of Captain America that Stevie was rapidly discovering they expected her to live.  

 

Chronologically, Stevie was ninety-four, but mentally and biologically, she was twenty-four. This was a fact that seemed to be lost on people. Her entire personality and age were erased by an image that was not her own. She was being forced to be someone she was not, and it was worse than when she was a chorus girl. The one good thing about her younger age was how quickly she was able to pick up on how to use the appliances in her house and the phone she’d been provided. It made discovering what the world wanted from her easier.

 

She was all alone, being forced to be somebody she wasn’t, in a strange new world.

 

Bucky told her she was going to the future, but she was sure as hell that he didn’t mean it like this.

 

The thought of Bucky made her lay her hand over her stomach. She wasn’t alone after all. Stevie glanced at the clock on her stove. It was past midnight, but it looked like another sleepless night.

 

Stevie got up and out of the kitchen chair and headed for the twenty-four-hour gym provided by SHIELD she’d taken to visiting when she couldn’t sleep. Stevie put on easy clothes to work out in, her shoes, and a light coat, grabbing her keys on the way out the door. She locked the door and walked to the gym.

 

She wrapped her hands and started beating on punching bags. It was usually easy to zone out and get locked in while punching the bag, but sometimes that was a bad thing. Instead of clearing her head, she just ended up reliving moments she wished she could forget from the end of the war.

 

One moment she’s punching the sand filled bag, and the next she’s hanging out the side of a speeding train, mere inches too far away to reach her Bucky as he fell. The sound of her exhales and the sound of her fists hitting the bag are drowned out by Bucky’s scream. The next she’s punching the bag again, and then she’s watching that damned blue cube melt layer after layer of Red Skull with pure energy. A different, but no less haunting scream echoes in her ears. She’s in the gym again, but then she’s cold, so, so, cold, and she can hear muffled exclamations through layers of ice. She’s cold, oh so cold and hearing familiar screams, and then there’s a loud shatter of glass and a huge physical force hitting her like a truck and Stevie realizes she’s standing in the gym having punched the bag so hard it flew off the hook and started leaking sand everywhere.

 

Stevie sucked in an unsteady breath, before grabbing a new punching bag and hanging it up.

 

The cycle started to repeat. Bucky falling, Bucky on that table looking at the ceiling with unseeing eyes, Red Skull ripping his face off, his face melting the second he finished taking the skin off, and then a harsh mixture of fire and blindingly white snow, and –

 

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked, walking in just as Stevie punched the bag straight off the hook and into a wall.

 

"I slept for seventy years sir. I think I've had my fill," Stevie told him, hanging up a third bag.

 

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world," Fury told her.

 

Stevie looked at him as if he were crazy. She started unwrapping her hands. She wasn’t even sure if SHIELD would let her go out and explore the world.

 

"When I went under, the world was at war. When I woke up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost," Stevie sighed, closing her eyes at the memory of Bucky falling off the side of the train, for the millionth time that night.

 

"We've made some mistakes on the way. Some very recently," Fury said, holding up a folder.

 

"You're here with a mission, sir?" Stevie asked, looking up at him.

 

"I am."

 

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

 

"Trying to save it."

 

Stevie brushed a couple strands of hair that had fallen from her ponytail back behind one of her ears and sat down. She’d tried straightening it this week and it kept getting in her face. At least now it had returned to wavy, and it would curl again when she took her shower before bed. Fury handed her the folder he was holding.

 

"Hydra's secret weapon," Stevie noted, flipping it open and seeing a frighteningly familiar blue and glowing cube.

 

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That’s something the world sorely needs," Fury told her, tilting his head slightly.

 

"Who took it from you?" Stevie asked, remembering the blast from those weapons.

 

"He's called Loki. He’s, not from around here. There’s a lot we’ll have to bring you up to speed on if you’re in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know," Fury chuckled, shaking his head as Stevie handed him back the folder.

 

"At this point, I doubt much could surprise me," Stevie told him, picking up her gym bag.

 

"Ten bucks says you're wrong," Fury challenged as she picked up one of the many punching bags that were lined up for her, "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

 

"You should have left it in the ocean," Stevie told him, walking from the room with the punching bag.

 

Stevie walked home, glancing up to see STARK Tower suddenly light up. A red and gold humanoid shape landed in the tower not even a minute later.

 

"Flying suit, but no flying car," Stevie muttered, shaking her head as she arrived at her apartment.

 

Sure enough, sitting on her table was a debriefing package in the form of a tablet. Sighing, Stevie decided to take her shower before taking a look.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Stevie was sure if she should be flattered or not when she met Agent Phil Coulson, and he made a little “Yay!” sound when she offered him her hand. He had come to personally escort her to the Helicarrier. She followed him to a Quinjet and sat herself down to resume going over the notes gathered of the other people she was to work with on this…mission wasn’t the right word, not yet, but it was the only one Stevie could think of.

 

"So, this Dr. Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on me?" Stevie asked, looking at a weird box that displayed information and videos that she'd been told was called a tablet.

 

"A lot of people were. You were the world’s first superhero. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine’s original formula," Coulson replied easily, bouncing slightly.  

 

"Didn’t really go his way, did it?" Stevie asked, almost rhetorically.

 

"Not so much. When he’s not that thing though, guy’s like a Stephen Hawking," Coulson said, before noticing Stevie's confused glance, "He’s like a smart person."

 

Stevie nodded and paused the video of the screaming green monster.

 

"I gotta say, it’s an honor to meet you, officially. I sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping," Coulson said, stumbling over his words.

 

Stevie openly smirked at him.

 

"I mean, I was…I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it’s really, it’s just a…just a huge honour to have you on board," Coulson stuttered, turning red.

 

"Well, I hope I’m the gal for the job," Stevie sighed putting down the tablet and standing up beside Coulson.

 

"Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh…we’ve made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input," Coulson was starting to get super excited.

 

She could tell because instead of keeping a mostly pleasantly neutral expression, he was actually smiling.

 

"The uniform? Aren’t the stars and stripes a little…old fashioned?" Stevie tried not to frown at the words 'old fashioned.'

 

"Everything that’s happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned," Coulson told her.

 

Stevie smiled at him and pulled her dog tags out from under her shirt. All three rings were still there.

 

"We, uh, we were wondering what those charms meant," Coulson said, glancing at the rings, "You were holding onto those rings when we unfroze you, and there weren't any accounts from the war about you having a third charm covered ring along with your wedding and engagement rings on your dog tags."

 

"Oh, this ring was a gift from the Commandos, Howard and Peggy after I lost Bucky. There's a charm for each Commando, including Bucky and Peggy, and Howard etched his name in the ring that held them all together. To be fair, as annoying as he was, his tech did save our lives quite often," Stevie explained with a smirk, "So it makes sense that he kept us all together."

 

Coulson nodded, still smiling.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?" The woman who Coulson had introduced as Natasha Romanoff asked.

 

Natasha had a kind of dangerous and chaotic energy about her that Stevie felt she could really appreciate. She seemed like the kind of person who would enjoy getting into bar fights with Stevie. Stevie decided that she was going to try to befriend this secret agent.

 

"Trading cards?"

 

"They’re vintage, he’s very proud," Natasha told her, strolling over to a man in a purple shirt who was looking around nervously.

 

He looked like he’d spent a lot of time on the run. He was wary of all the uniformed agents around him, and seemed the type to have learned how to disappear into jungle and city alike to avoid confrontation.

 

"Dr. Banner," Stevie greeted, shaking his hand.

 

"Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you’d be coming," Banner said, looking at her curiously.

 

"Word is you can find the cube," Stevie smiled.

 

"Is that the only word on me?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

"Only word I care about."

 

Banner sent her a sad look that told her he didn't believe her.

 

"Must be strange for you, all of this," He continued to conversation by waving at all the agents moving around.

 

"Well, this is actually kind of familiar," Stevie shrugged, looking at the army formations people were moving in.

 

In all honesty, it was one of the first familiar things she'd seen since waking up.

 

"Gentleman and Lady, you may wanna step inside in a minute. It’s gonna get a little hard to breathe," Natasha smirked as the carrier started to shake.

 

"Is this a submarine?" Stevie asked in wonder, creeping closer to the edge of the carrier to look into the water.

 

"Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?" Banner asked sarcastically, following her to the edge, "Oh, no. This is much worse."

 

The Helicarrier has started flying.

 

Stevie laughed and shook her head. This was truly amazing. Bucky would have loved this.

 

“If I meet Tony Stark, I’m going to get him to make me a flying motorcycle,” Stevie decided aloud. “If this aircraft carrier can fly, and he can make that suit, I need a flying bike or car.”

 

“That’s right, Howard Stark tried to make a flying car. I thought it was a flop at the Expo?” Natasha asked curiously.

 

“The engine things Howard used in place of the wheels blew up. One of them nearly took Bucky’s head off,” Stevie answered. “Now that vehicles can actually fly, I am feeling robbed of the flying cars.”

 

Banner chuckled quietly, turning with Stevie and following Natasha inside.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The cobblestones cracked slightly as Stevie landed in crouch, covering the elderly man behind her with her shield. The beam of light meant to hit him rebounded and hit Loki. So far, she wasn’t liking aliens, or the idea that the Norse Gods could be real, or that Loki had taken the Tesseract.

 

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," Stevie said in a loud, clear and strong voice as she straightened to her feet.

 

"The soldier. A woman out of time," Loki hissed, glaring at her.

 

"I’m not the one who’s out of time," Stevie quipped, as Natasha angled a shield issued Quinjet to train its machine gun and search lights on Loki.

 

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down!" Natasha ordered, as the crowd scattered.

 

Loki sent a blast at the jet then a blast at Stevie. It knocked her to the ground, and he placed the blunt end of the sceptre against the base of her head.

 

"Kneel!" Loki commanded.

 

"Not today!" Stevie snapped, flipping and knocking Loki back with her leg.

 

They fought quickly, the battle forcing the pair to move quickly and all over the emptying square. His punches were fast and hard enough for her to really understand why people might mistake him for a god.

 

Suddenly the jet's PA system was taken over and what se would later discover was AC/DC started playing at full volume. A red and gold suit appeared out of nowhere and blasted Loki with energy channelled through the suit's gauntlets. Loki flew back into some stairs and the sceptre was thrown several metres away from him. Every single piece of weaponry in the armour opened and prepared to fire, targeting Loki.

 

"Make your move, Reindeer Games," a human, but slightly mechanical, voice demanded from inside the armour.

 

Loki put his hands up and let his armour melt away.

 

"Good move," Tony Stark announced, as all the weaponry disappeared back into the suit.

 

"Mr. Stark," Stevie greeted, sliding her shield onto her back.

 

"Captain," Stark replied, nodding his head slightly.

 

Natasha landed the jet, and they slapped a pair of handcuffs on Loki. Stark seemed to watch Stevie with an unreadable expression as she shoved Loki aboard the jet.

 

“You’re quiet, Stark,” Natasha commented, rolling her eyes.

 

“Uh, yeah I am. I recently found an old note book of my dad’s from the war,” Stark said flippantly. “You know, find all the notes he had about the Tesseract and the weapons powered by it. Just thinking about the notes in the book.”

 

“I don't like it," Stevie said, frowning at Loki.

 

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Stark questioned, glancing at Loki.

 

"I don’t remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wallop," Stevie elaborated, shooting a glare at Loki.

 

"Still, you were pretty spry, for an older woman. What’s your thing? Pilates?" Stark rapid fire questioned.

 

"What?" Steve said plainly, openly confused.

 

"It’s like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle," Stark shrugged.

 

Stevie wasn’t sure if he was testing her or if he was really just that rude.

 

"Fury didn’t tell me he was calling you in," Stevie said, tilting her head slightly and changing the subject to something she could understand.

 

"Yeah, there’s a lot of things Fury doesn’t tell you," Stark mused, as a flash of lightning crossed the previously clear skies.

 

"Where’s this coming from?" Natasha asked as the jet shook.

 

Loki leaned forward and glanced around worriedly. Now Stevie was on edge. Loki looked more concerned now than he did when they first grabbed him.

 

"What’s the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" Stevie hissed looking at the worried prisoner.

 

"I’m not overly fond of what follows," Loki replied evenly, as something landed with a thump on the jet.

 

A man with blond hair, holding a hammer, and wearing a cape, burst in through the back door. Stark tried to get in his way but was slammed into the wall leading to the cockpit. The man grabbed Loki and jumped into the storm.

 

"Now there’s that guy," Stark snapped with frustration.

 

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha asked, turning her head.

 

"Think the guy’s a friendly?" Stevie called grabbing her shield.

 

"Doesn’t matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract’s lost," Stark replied, turning and preparing to jump for the jet.

 

"Stark we need a plan of attack!" Stevie yelled, grabbing her shield.

 

"I have a plan. Attack," Stark barked, jumping out of the jet.

 

Stevie let out a frustrated sigh as she grabbed a parachute. Men were such children sometimes.

 

"I’d sit this one out, Cap," Natasha suggested, turning to look at her.

 

"I don’t see how I can," Stevie replied, putting the cute on and grabbing her shield again.

 

"These guys come from legends, they’re basically Gods," Natasha warned.

 

"There’s only one God, ma’am. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that," Stevie told her, jumping from the jet.

 

Pulling the parachute, Stevie landed gracefully for having jumped out of a speeding jet and into a storm. She stepped out of the parachute and listened to find Stark and the Asgardian.

 

She could hear sounds of fighting and ran towards it. She came upon a small clearing surrounded with fallen and broken trees. Jumping onto the trunk of a broken tree, she threw her shield.

 

It bounced off Stark's arm and the Asgardian's chest. Flipping from the tree, Stevie caught the shield and slung it back onto her arm.

 

"Hey! That's enough!" Stevie yelled, walking up to the pair.

 

The Asgardian's eyes grew wide as he saw her. Stevie was in that moment infinitely grateful that Coulson had made her costume cover almost every square inch of her skin and had made the skirt both come to her knees and be on top of leggings.

 

"Now, I don’t know what you plan on doing here," Stevie began, trying to draw the Asgardian's eyes from her costume to her face.

 

The super soldier realized that this Asguardian was Thor.

 

"I’ve come here to put an end to Loki’s schemes!" Thor declared.

 

"Then prove it. Put that hammer down," Stevie ordered narrowing her eyes.

 

"Uh…yep! No! Bad call! He loves his hammer!" Stark yelled, and just as he yelled the word 'hammer,' Thor knocked him back into a tree with said hammer.

 

"You want me to put the hammer down?" Thor roared, leaping into the air and bringing the hammer down.

 

Stevie reacted pulling her shield up and crouching so as not to be knocked over. The resounding shock wave nearly levelled all of the surrounding forest and threw Thor through several trees.

 

"Are we done here?" Stevie asked, straightening up and regarding the two men in front of her with wide eyes.

 

The pair got to their feet. Thor nodded, while Stark's face plate slid up.

 

“That was in equal parts awesome and really painful,” he complained, looking around for Loki. “Where’d our prisoner go?”

 

“I will collect him,” Thor said, spinning his hammer and leaping into the air.


	2. Facing Aliens in the Future

Stevie was starting to notice a pattern of supervillains having monologues in real life about power and being above humanity while listening to and watching Fury’s initial chat with Loki. Banner then quickly put Stevie’s thoughts about Loki into words.

 

"He really grows on you, doesn’t he?" Banner asked, looking up from the screens that were now closing.

 

"Loki’s gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what’s his play?" Stevie prompted, slipping into business mode.

 

"He has an army called the Chitauri, that are not of Asgard nor any world know. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract," Thor explained, also looking serious.

 

"An army, from outer space," Stevie repeated flatly, glaring at the sky.

 

Stevie was really starting to hate the future.

 

"So, he’s building another portal. That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for," Banner continued, pacing beside the table.

 

"Selvig?" Thor asked, worriedly.

 

"He’s an astrophysicist," Banner explained, waving his glasses around.

 

"He’s a friend," Thor corrected him.

 

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours," Natasha added, frowning at the table.

 

"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He’s not leading an army from here," Stevie put in, leaning back and crossing her arm.

 

"I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him," Banner told her with wide eyes.

 

"I don’t care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he’s my brother!" Thor defended, frowning.

 

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha pointed out looking up from the table and at Thor.

 

"He’s adopted," Thor added in a slightly smaller voice.

 

"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?" Banner changed the subject with a roll of his eyes.

 

"It’s a stabilizing agent," Stark announced his entrance to the room loudly, before saying something quickly to Coulson before continuing the group’s conversation, "Means the portal won’t collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD."

 

He strode into the room and patted Thor's arm.

 

"No hard feelings Point Break, you’ve got a mean swing. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants," Stark smirked, looking around.

 

He walked up to Fury's command centre.

 

"Uh, raise the mizenmast, ship the topsails," Stark ordered, receiving confused and annoyed looks from all the techs on board.

 

"That man is playing Gallaga! Thought we wouldn’t notice, but we did," Stark announced, causing Stevie to look at everyone in confusion.

 

Coulson mouthed the words 'it's a game.' Stevie nodded in thanks. She still didn’t know if he was actually an asshole or not.

 

"How does Fury even see these?" Stark asked, covering one eye.

 

"He turns," the agent Coulson introduced as Maria Hill answered.

 

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube," Stark said opening his arms wide.

 

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill snapped incredulously.

 

"Last night. The packet, Selvig’s notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?" Stark asked rhetorically.

 

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Stevie asked, changing the subject slightly.

 

"He got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner replied, looking at Stevie who didn't even pretend to know what he was talking about.

 

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect," Stark added, stepping closer to the table.

 

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner pointed out, stepping closer to Stevie.

 

"Finally, someone who speaks English!" Stark declared, walking up to Banner.

 

"Is that what just happened?" The super soldier asked the room.

 

"It’s good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You’re work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster," Stark told Banner, shaking his hand.

 

"Thanks," Banner said, dipping his head awkwardly.

 

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him," Fury announced, striding into the room.

 

"Let’s start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon," Stevie suggested, frowning at memories.

 

People disintegrating, or being melted into space, flashed through her mind.

 

"I don’t know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I’d like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys," Fury said, looking at Banner and Stark.

 

"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor questioned, frowning.

 

"I do! I understood that reference," Stevie said with a smile.

 

She and Bucky had snuck into that movie together. Man, those monkeys had been scary at the time.

 

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Stark asked Banner.

 

"After you," Banner nodded.

 

"What is this reference to flying monkeys?" Thor asked Stevie.

 

"I'm taking a video of this," Natasha muttered, filming Stevie and Thor on her phone.

 

"There's a book and a movie about a girl named Dorothy, who goes on an adventure to a magical land over the rainbow called Oz. She's trying to get home, but an evil witch who has an army of flying monkeys is trying to stop her from getting to the Wizard of Oz who will help her get home," Stevie explained happily, ignoring Natasha, “I saw the movie in the theaters with Bucky. The monkeys obeyed the Witch of the West’s every command without question!”

 

Thor nodded to himself, “The comparison between these flying monkeys and what Loki has been doing is indeed a strong and understandable one.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Stevie looked in at the lab and watched Stark electrocute Banner.

 

"Ow!" Banner exclaimed.

 

"Nothing?" Stark asked leaning in close to look at Banner's eyes.

 

"Hey! Are you nuts?" Stevie demanded, storming into the room.

 

"Juries out. You really have a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Stark rapid fired questions at Banner.

 

"Is everything a joke to you?" Stevie questioned, tilting her head to the side.

 

"Funny things are," Stark quipped.

 

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn’t funny. No offense, doctor," Stevie said, turning to Banner.

 

"No, it…it’s alright. I wouldn’t have come aboard if I couldn’t handle pointy things," Banner replied easily.

 

"You’re tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut," Stark suggested, walking around him backwards.

 

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Stevie snarked, for a second getting a flash back of saying a similar thing to Howard when she gave him a magazine filled with Tesseract powered bullets.

 

He’d been more fascinated with the magazine than the bullets until he almost blew up his lab.

 

"You think I’m not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us? I can’t do the equation unless I have all the variables," Stark told her flippantly, producing a bag of blueberries out of nowhere and shoving some in his mouth.

 

"You think Fury’s hiding something?" Stevie asked curiously.

 

"He’s a spy. Captain, he’s the spy. His secrets have secrets," Stark stressed, before pointing at Banner, "It’s bugging him too, isn’t it?"

 

"Uh…I just wanna finish my work here and…" Banner muttered.

 

"Doctor?" The super soldier encouraged.

 

"‘A warm light for all mankind to share’, Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube," Banner began with a sigh.

 

"I heard it."

 

"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn’t tell him, that all over the news," Banner continued, pointing at Stark.

 

Stark offered Banner some blueberries, which he accepted.

 

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…building in New York?" Stevie stopped herself at Stark's glare.

 

In her defence, it looked ugly on the outside.

 

"It’s powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Banner added, looking at Stark.

 

"That’s just the prototype. I’m kind of the only name in clean energy right now," Stark bragged.

 

"So why didn’t SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" Banner asked, frowning.

 

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD’s secure files," Stark smirked.

 

"I’m sorry, did you say…?" Stevie asked, confusion written on her face.

 

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we’ll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Stark asked, offering her a blueberry.

 

"Yet you’re confused about why they didn’t want you around?" Stevie asked rhetorically with a raised eyebrow, ignoring the bag of blueberries practically being waved in her face.

 

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not awesome," Stark sassed, raising an eyebrow at her.

 

"I think Loki’s trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don’t stay focused, he’ll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them," Stevie lectured.

 

"Following is not really my style," Stark told her.

 

"And you’re all about style, aren’t you?"

 

"Of the people in this room, which one is: a, wearing a spangley skirt, and b, not of use?" Stark snapped at her.

 

He could not possibly know how much that statement pushed all her buttons. It was decided. She didn’t like him.

 

"Stevie, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Banner said, trying a softer and gentler tone than Stark.

 

"Just find the cube," Stevie snapped, storming out of the room.

 

She paused and headed for the armoury. Stark was right, but she didn't want to admit it to his face. He was crasser than his father, but something was wrong with SHIELD’s intentions for the Tesseract.

 

Of course, they had to be developing weapons like Hydra.

 

Stevie hated the future.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

On minute, Stevie was arguing with just about everybody, and the next the room exploded. She and Stark managed to work together, and Stevie almost fell off the carrier avoiding gunfire, but as soon as everything calmed down enough for a damage assessment, Stevie wanted the distraction and adrenaline of a fight for her life again.

 

“Everything special about you came out of a bottle,” Stark had said.

 

Before she’d been frozen, she would have easily been able to refute that statement, but now? In this strange future where the only person people seemed to care about was Captain America and not Stephanie Barnes? In this future, in this world, his statement was true.

 

Luckily, she didn’t have time to think about that while Fury lectured them and blatantly manipulated them, and both Thor and Banner were in the wind. Loki having escaped was stressful enough on its own. Coulson having died made her feel bad, mostly because it was obvious how much everyone there had cared about him, and she felt like she was intruding.

 

Stevie looked at the blood covered trading cards. There were some of her old outfit, where she looked more like a pinup then a soldier. She didn't once look up at Fury. She just looked at all the cards. In one of them, Bucky was standing next to her.

 

Stark got up and stormed out of the room.

 

"Well, it's an old-fashioned notion," Fury added, and Stevie couldn't stop herself from sending him a glare as she strode out of the room after Stark.

 

She found him in the detention centre.

 

"Was he married?" Stevie asked quietly.

 

"No. There was a uh…cellist, I think," Stark replied.

 

"I’m sorry. He seemed like a good man," Stevie whispered, looking at the empty space the cell used to occupy.

 

"He was an idiot."

 

"Why? For believing?" Stevie asked, bristling slightly.

 

"For taking on Loki alone," Stark corrected, glaring at the empty space.

 

"He was doing his job," Stevie said softly, thinking about all the men who she had seen fall in the war.

 

"He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…" Stark broke off, closing his eyes.

 

"Sometimes there isn’t a way out, Tony," Stevie told him gently. 

 

She was trying to not see how many parallels there were between facing down a Norse God and forcing a plane down in the arctic.

 

"Right. How did that work for him?" Stark snapped.

 

Well it didn’t work for Stevie, so why should it work for Coulson?

 

"Is this the first time you’ve lost a soldier?" Stevie asked, tilting her head.

 

"We are not soldiers! I’m not marching to Fury’s fife!" Stark snapped, turning on her.

 

"Neither am I. He’s got the same blood on his hands that Loki does, but right now we gotta put that behind us and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list…" Stevie suggested, trying to regroup.

 

"He made it personal," Stark said suddenly.

 

"That’s not the point," Stevie blinked.

 

"That is the point. That’s Loki’s point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?" Stark was on a roll in his brain, but for the life of her, Stevie couldn't figure it out.

 

"To tear us apart?" Stevie pointed out, still not following.

 

"Divide and conquer, great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That’s what he wants. He wants to beat us, and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience," Stark said, and suddenly Stevie caught on.

 

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart," Stevie nodded, thinking that she was starting to get on the same track.

 

"Yeah. That’s just previews, this is…this is opening night. And Loki, he’s a full-tail diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered-Son of a bitch," Stark stopped, "I know where he's gonna be!"

 

"Where? Wait, name plastered, your tower! Banner said it had a reactor!" Stevie said, following him out of the room.

 

"Exactly!”


	3. Looking Up

The battle was a bit of a blur. Thor and Banner had some dramatic entrances. Hulk seemed to have taken a liking to her, smiling when she told him to smash stuff. Barton seemed like a laid back and fun person now he wasn’t brainwashed.

 

It wasn’t until she took a laser blast to the stomach that Stevie remembered that she’d gone into battle while pregnant. Thor helped her to her feet, and Stevie had to remind herself that the baby survived getting frozen and that one measly laser blast shouldn’t be able to hurt them.

 

“Are you alright, Lady Stephanie?”

 

“I’m fine,” Stevie replied, almost on instinct.

 

“There are more coming,” Thor observed, frowning at the sky.

 

“What, are you gettin’ tired?” slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it.

 

It was just the kind of thing she’d ask Bucky or the Commandos, but they were all…gone. Thor simply sent her a slightly bemused glace before rejoining the fray. Sighing, Stevie threw her shield and ignored the twinge of pain in her midsection.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Close it,” Stevie ordered sadly, waiting for Stark to fly back out of the portal.

 

Instead of flying out, he fell just as the portal slammed shut.

 

“Son of a gun,” Stevie breathed in surprise.

 

“He’s not slowing down!” Thor barked worriedly, spinning his hammer to fly over and catch him.

 

Hulk leapt out of nowhere, catching Stark, and landed heavily on the ground. Stevie and Thor rushed over just as Hulk lay him down. Stevie found herself on her knees in beside him, staring at an extremely faded arc reactor. Thor ripped the face plate off of the suit, and Stevie tapped the reactor. Hulk roared loudly, making Stark jerk awake and the arc reactor light up again.

 

“Argh! What happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me!” Stark begged, glancing at Stevie as she moved a piece of rubble so she could sit down.

 

"We won," She sighed, staring at the wreckage around them. A silent 'and I got to see It.' resounded in her head.  
  
"Yay! Good job guys! Let's just, let's just take the next week off. Have you ever tried Shawarma? I don't know what it is but I wanna try it. I saw a Shawarma place not that far from here," Stark said, raising one arm to gesture.  
  
"We're not finished yet," Thor told them grimly.  
  
"And then Shawarma?" Stark asked, lifting his head slightly.  
  
"Sure." Stevie chuckled, starting to get up.  
  
"Let me help you to your feet, Lady Stephanie. You took a nasty hit to the stomach not that long ago," Thor insisted, holding out his hand.

 

“Thanks,” Stevie smiled, accepting the hand.

 

“Aren’t you pregnant right now?” Stark asked in alarm, causing Stevie to look at him with wide eyes. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, I hacked the classified parts of your file. I’m confused as to why you’re not more worried about that injury.”

 

“I am continuously reminding myself that my baby survived being frozen for seventy years,” Stevie replied honestly as Thor helped her to her feet.

 

“After we apprehend Loki, we will get medical attention for you,” Thor informed her seriously.

 

Hulk nudged her lightly with one finger.

 

“My baby and I are going to be alright, Hulk,” Steve reassured him. “First we have to make sure Loki is in custody.”

 

“Just telling you now, but I want to be the godfather,” Stark informed her seriously. “I’m too tired to explain why now, but I have a really good reason.”

 

“How about we talk about this closer to the due date, yeah?” Stevie suggested.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Three days after Thor left with the Tesseract and Loki, Stevie found herself sitting in Stark Tower with a glass of water in her hand and Stark digging through a box of papers in front of her.

 

“Here it is!” Stark exclaimed, pulling out a beaten-up black notebook that Stevie instantly recognized as Howard’s. “Dad’s notebook. More like a diary, really.”

 

“What’s Howard’s notebook got to do with you insisting on being my unborn baby’s godfather?” Stevie asked curiously.

 

“I’m getting to that. Dad used this book like a diary, and has some pretty surprising things written in here,” Stark told her. “For example, were you aware that my dad was in love with you?”

 

Stevie froze and stared at Stark with wide eyes, “No, no I had no idea. Howard didn’t give me any sign.”

 

“Yeah, he was trying to hide his crush on you that turned into more once he found out you were married. Anyways, in this book, around the point where you got really depressed after your husband died, Dad was thinking about talking you into marrying him so he could look after you,” Stark informed her. “You took an arctic nose dive before that happened, but my dad was still super into you and spent the rest of his life trying to recover your body.”

 

Stevie lifted her glass of water and decided to drain it in one go.

 

“So, I decided that this was some pretty important information to uncover the night before I met you, right? I felt the need to do more research on you and hacked your file and found out you were pregnant. Also, it occurred to me that you happen to be mentally twenty-four, which is younger than me,” Stark pressed on. “I decided that Dad having acted practically married to you my whole life made you my step-mom, which is a name I will be referring to you as from now on, and that I want to know the kid who should have been in best case a cousin or worst case a step-sibling to me.”

 

“I, I don’t know what to say right now. I’m really overwhelmed.”

 

“It just occurred to me that we should have probably had this conversation at your apartment because right now we’re in my lab and this heavy of a conversation in this unfamiliar of an environment seems stress inducing,” Stark said, cringing at the unimpressed look Stevie sent him.

 

Stevie unsteadily got to her feet. “If you really want to be my kid’s godfather you have to make me a flying motorcycle, Stark.”

 

Stark let out a burst of laughter. “Call me Tony.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Stevie walked into her living room to find Natasha and Clint sitting on her couch arguing over the best kinds of high heels to wear while killing somebody and decided to that this was most likely going to be a reoccurring situation.

 

“But you could use the stiletto as a weapon too!” Clint argued, “Yeah, wedges mean you have more balance, but they’re less of a weapon than a stiletto!”

 

“How high do those heels have to be to qualify for this conversation?” Stevie asked, walking into her kitchen. “Because some combat boots are heeled, and most people wear combat boots or something similar while killing people.”

 

Both Clint and Natasha turned slowly to look at her. Stevie shrugged at them before rooting around in her fridge for some orange juice.

 

“Do either of you want anything from the kitchen?” Stevie asked, finding the orange juice.

 

“You have Doritos in the cupboard above the fridge, I want those,” Natasha replied immediately. “Also, the heels on combat boots are too short to qualify.”

 

Stevie found the bag in question and threw it to Natasha who opened it and slapped Clint’s hand when he tried to grab a handful.

 

“Please share,” Stevie said mildly, grabbing a glass from the cupboard over the sink and pouring her orange juice.

 

“I’ve just gotta admit, your reaction to seeing us here is not what I expected,” Clint told Stevie as she walked into the living room.

 

“I figured that you were either here with a mission or because you wanted to be friends,” Stevie said, sitting down on the chair that was angled to face the couch. “Since neither of you are in uniform, I guessed it was because you wanted to be friends. I kinda assumed that would mean you both randomly appearing in my living room would become a usual occurrence.”

 

“That was a safe assumption,” Natasha smirked. “So, Stark says you’re pregnant. I’m offended that I was not the first person you told.”

 

“I didn’t tell anybody,” Stevie rolled her eyes. “Stark hacked my file after discovering Howard had a crush on me. Now Stark wants to be the godfather.”

 

“The only way Stark gets to be godfather is if I’m godmother,” Natasha snapped immediately.

 

“Dibs on being the fun uncle,” Clint said, managing to snag a handful of Doritos.

 

“I think that your status as the fun uncle will all depend on you, Barton,” pointed out Stevie, “I can’t make my kid believe you’re fun if you don’t deliver.”

 

“Cap has too much sass,” Clint complained, poking Natasha in the arm.

 

“She’s right though,” Natasha shrugged, before turning to Stevie. “Get ready to face the world, we’re abducting you to Disneyland.”

 

“We stole Stark’s credit card, so he’ll probably meet us there not long after JARVIS squeals on us for spending his money,” Clint said happily.

 

“I haven’t caught up on Disney movies yet,” Stevie told them, getting up to change into clothes better suited for an amusement park.

 

“Be sure to tell Stark that when he arrives and he’ll host a marathon at the Tower,” Clint told her. “Just so you are aware, we are going to go on every single ride except the kiddie ones.”

 

“I’m getting déjà vu from Coney Island in the thirties,” Stevie grumbled.

 


	4. In the Public Eye

The first thing Stevie noticed was the crowds of people everywhere. Long lines were everywhere, but Clint and Natasha, and by extension Tony, had apparently spent money on a special pass for the shorter lines.

 

Tony arrived about ten minutes after they did, ready to rant at them for stealing his money, but Natasha shoved his pass into his hands the second she saw him.

 

“Stevie hasn’t caught up on Disney yet,” Clint said in lieu of an actual explanation.

 

Tony stared at him as if he was insane, “Then why’d you take her to Disneyland instead of Disney World?”

 

“We don’t want to put her in a Disney coma,” Natasha said as if it were obvious.

 

“There’s just so much to see and do,” Stevie told Tony, looking around with wide eyes. “Clint says we’re going on all the rides.”

 

“I bet on the teacups I’ll spin faster than you, Legolas,” Tony smirked deviously.

 

“Oh, you’re on, Stark!”

 

Tony only managed to beat Clint because he’d dragged Stevie into his teacup. Stevie had forgotten just how competitive she could get, and Tony cackled while Clint complained that relying on super soldiers was cheating.

 

They went into the haunted house, and Tony kept muttering about how fake everything was and how he could make better robots and projections. Stevie was just surprised by the whole thing and found it less scary thanks to Tony’s muttering. Clint screamed a few times out of fear, and Natasha started laughing.

 

They then systematically went on every single roller coaster in the park, Clint and Tony arguing over which rides were the best, and Natasha seemingly collecting more and more Mickey Mouse merchandise every time Stevie looked over to her. Natasha did take the time to reassure her that she’d payed for everything with Tony’s money.

 

They were stopped every once and a while because Tony was recognized, but they managed to otherwise stay under the raider while in Disneyland.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Stevie woke up with a start in the messy pile of Avengers who had fallen asleep in the middle of their fifth movie marathon. She’d been surrounded by fire and feeling the motion of a train. Shivering, Stevie climbed out of the mess of blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, and upended bowls of popcorn to find a glass of water.

 

“Oh good, you’re up.”

 

Stevie managed not to jump when she found Fury standing in the middle of the kitchen.

 

“Well good morning to you, too,” Stevie said, finding a glass.

 

“The public is officially aware that the Captain America who saved New York is the same Captain America from World War Two,” Fury informed her calmly. “The press is losing their minds with excitement. Be prepared for paparazzi and news conferences. We’re working on getting you PR management.”

 

“If this is your way of telling me that it is not a good morning, you need to take some classes on people skills,” Stevie responded flatly, filling her glass with water. “Do you just really like dramatic entrances or are you really socially awkward? Your entrances are on par with Tony’s.”

 

“Never insult me like that again,” Fury snapped, “Wake Stark up, he’s got the most experience with the press.”

 

And just like that, Fury walked out of the room.

 

Stevie grumbled quietly to herself as she walked back to the Avenger pile. Tony wasn’t hard to wake up. She just had to poke him a few times, and he jerked awake.

 

“What is it?” Tony grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

 

Stevie sat down next to him, “Fury says the world knows I’m alive and that I need a PR manager.”

 

Tony groaned and flopped back onto the floor. "It's too early for this."

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Stevie took jobs for SHIELD up until she was showing, and the medical staff started getting antsy whenever she left for a mission. After admitting to being tossed out a window and taking more than the one hit, the medical staff had been very invested in the health of her child. Everything checked out as healthy at every check up, but since it was already a miracle that the child was still alive, they were very concerned that the luck wouldn’t hold up. Most missions were rescue operations or retrieval missions, and she always had a team. On the other hand, the medical staff thought that freezing and taking a laser blast to the stomach was enough stress and that all of her missions were considered high stress and high risk. Nobody wanted to be the person that hadn’t been able to save Captain America’s baby.  

 

Tony had made an entire floor of his Tower for Stevie, and he let her decorate however she wanted. This meant she was painting giant murals in her child’s room. One wall was under the sea, one was in a boreal forest, another wall was the savanna, and the last wall was the rainforest.

 

“Just how many BBC nature documentaries did you see? I half expect David Attenborough’s voice to reply instead of JARVIS’ in here,” Tony exclaimed, walking in just in time to see Stevie finish painting the scales of a clown fish.

 

“There’s so much about our world that my child will be able to learn about that I didn’t while growing up,” Stevie said, smiling at the reef shark she’d finished just moments before working on the clown fish.

 

Tony hummed, slipping his hands into his pockets. “How’re you feeling about the press conference tomorrow?”

 

Stevie let out a tired sigh and turned away from the wall. “I don’t know. I mean, I’ve handled reporters before, but now so much is different, and I’m not entirely sure what they might ask me.”

 

“Hey, you can always follow in my shoes and announce something surprising and leave them like that,” Tony suggested with a smirk, “Pepper and the PR team will kill both of us, but you know, its more fun.”

 

Stevie chuckled and got to her feet.

 

“You got this, Stevie. People are going to be angry no matter what you say but remember that you’ve got all of us and a whole lotta people out there on your side,” Tony told her. “Now, we’re ordering in pizza. Come fight over which pizzas with the rest of us.

 

“Will do.” Stevie followed Tony out of the room and to the common room floor where the rest of the Avengers appeared to be assembled.

 

Several take out menus for different pizza places were torn up and thrown around the room. Clint sat on top of the bar looking guilty, while Natasha was taping menus back together. Banner had cracked open a book and burrowed under a blanket.

 

“What happened here?” Tony asked when he stepped into the room.

 

“Natasha and Clint got into a tug of war with the take out menus so Clint is in time out and Natasha is putting the menus back together,” Banner answered monotonously, looking up from his book.

 

This prompted the sudden exclamations of: “Clint wouldn’t let me read the menus” and “Natasha wouldn’t wait her turn!”

 

“Did anybody agree on any pizzas?” Stevie asked curiously, stopping a fight before it began.

 

“We’re going to order two pizzas from every place that delivers in the city,” Clint replied happily, hopping off the counter.

 

“Sounds like a fun pizza party,” mused Tony.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Captain America!”

 

“Mrs. Barnes!”

 

“Stephanie Barnes!”

 

“Captain!”

 

The tidal wave of shouting and flashing lights was overwhelming. Stevie walked slowly to the podium and glanced back at Tony and Natasha, both of whom stood to the side as moral support. Natasha smirked and Tony offered two thumbs up.

 

“Questions one at a time, please,” Pepper called from the side of the stage Stevie was standing on.

 

The reporters quieted down for a moment.

 

“When did you wake up?” one reporter called, and Stevie took a deep breath.

 

“I woke up about ten days before the attack on New York,” replied Stevie, her tone calm and measured.

 

Another brave reporter shouted their question, “Were you aware while you were in the ice? Like, did you notice the passage of time?”

 

“No, I wasn’t. I get flashes of memory while being defrosted, but all the while I was frozen solid I was asleep,” Stevie answered, cringing as the reporters started talking over each other again.

 

“How do you feel about the future?”

 

“I, it’s very different from the thirties but there are some similarities,” Stevie said quickly as more questions were hurled at her.

 

“What do you miss most about the forties?”

 

Stevie answered that one without thinking, “Bucky.”

 

“Do you plan to continue working with SHIELD as a superhero?” and “Are you going to continue your work as a feminist icon?” were shouted at the same time.

 

“When will you start dating again?”

 

“Are you in any new relationship?”

 

“Where are you living now?”

 

Suddenly, cutting through the chaos: “Is it true that you’re pregnant?”

 

The room fell silent. Then exploded again, cameras flashing more, all the reporters on their feet.

 

“Are you going to work while pregnant?”

 

“Who is the father?”

 

“How far along are you?”

 

“Do you plan on working after you give birth?”

 

“Are you planning on using formula?”

 

“Are you worried that your child will have any of your pre-serum conditions?”

 

“Cistercian or natural birth?”

 

Within moments all the questions became a single mass of shouting. Stevie frowned at the reporters, putting on her most disappointed and stern facial expression. Slowly her expression made the reporters sheepishly sit down in their chairs and fall silent.

 

Behind her, Stevie could hear Tony snigger.

 

“I don’t know where you got that information, but I am pregnant with my husband’s child. The details of how I plan to deliver my baby and how I plan to raise my baby is nobody’s business but my own, so I will not be answering any questions in relation to that subject,” Stevie informed them calmly. “I am not currently in any romantic relationships, and do not intend to enter one any time soon, because I am mourning my husband. I do not wish to divulge my address at this time. I have currently been taken off of active duty for missions, but should another large-scale event, such as the Attack on New York arise, I will step in.”

 

“Will you continue to work as a feminist icon?”

 

“I didn’t start being Captain America with the intention of becoming a feminist icon. I do identify as a feminist. I joined the army because I don’t like bullies, and I don’t care where they’re from. I joined because that was where I could do the most good, and people needed my help. I joined so as to do what was right.,” responded Stevie. “I will continue to do what is right, regardless of the adversary I might face.”

 

"Last question," Pepper announced, walking up to stand beside Stevie.

 

One reporter got to their feet. "Have you thought about illustrating for children's books since finding out you were pregnant?"

 

Stevie tilted her head and shifted her weight, "I hadn't, but that's not a bad idea."

 


	5. Pages

“You’ve really taken to that kid’s book suggestion,” Clint observed, looking at the pages and pages of drawings all over the living room.

 

Natasha carefully stepped around a pile of drawings on the floor, and picked up a picture off the couch, “Is this a picture of Bucky?”

 

“Yeah. I figured if our child won’t get to meet him, they’ll still get to know him through the stories,” Stevie replied cheerfully, finishing another page. “The one you’re holding is from the time we snuck into the movie theatre to watch Wizard of Oz. The one I’m working on now is about the time we met up with the Commandos when we had a few days leave and started a prank war with Howard and Peggy.”

 

Natasha hummed, “Do you have any stories without Bucky or the Commandos?”

 

“I’ve got some nature stories to go with the animals on the walls,” Stevie said, pointing a pile of papers on a chair.

 

“Good, because I’d worry if the only thing you drew was your dead friends and husband,” admitted Natasha.

 

Tony walked into the room and saw the floor and furniture covered with coloured and charcoal drawings. Stevie used the back of her charcoal stained hands to push a strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail back behind her ear, looking up to see him as he froze.

 

“Tony! I was just about to tell you that I’m running out of paper, so we’re going to need to order more,” Stevie told him while he looked around in a mixture of awe and horror.

 

“Where did you find this much paper to begin with?” Tony asked faintly. “It looks like a printer exploded!”

 

Stevie shrugged, picking up a pencil and a blank page, “In a storage room in one of the offices downstairs. I left a sticky note on the door telling them I took their paper.”

 

“Two questions: how many stories have you illustrated, and how long have you been at this?” Clint questioned, picking up different papers and looking at them.

 

“Thirty stories, and I’ve been working for a few days. I took breaks to eat and nap, don’t worry.”

 

“How many is a few days?” Natasha asked, frowning at Stevie.

 

Stevie shifted slightly, “Six days?”

 

“Yeah, no. Finish the page you’re working on, then go to bed,” Natasha ordered, putting her hands on her hips. “Too much work, even if you enjoy the work is a bad thing.”

 

“I want my living room back,” Tony moaned mournfully, carefully navigating his way to the bar, letting out a distressed sound when he found the bar covered in illustrations.

 

Clint and Natasha carefully sorted the papers into more organized piles, double checking with Stevie that the papers were going in the correct piles. Stevie finished drawing the elaborate catapult that Howard used to toss water balloons across the camp directly onto Dum Dum’s tent. She grabbed a pen and outlined the picture, erased the lines, and started selecting the correct colours.

 

“I’ve got to admit, I never realized there were so many shades of brown,” Tony commented, looking over Stevie’s shoulder to see the multiple boxes of pencil crayons she had for each colour sitting on the floor next to her.

 

Stevie shrugged, “Neither did I before the serum. I used to be colour blind, so I think I went overboard when I found pencil crayons in the future.”

 

“Yeah, you might have. You have three boxes dedicated to the colour grey, and four dedicated to green,” Tony chuckled, picking up two different shades of purple. “I’ve got to admit it; I can’t really tell the difference between these two. I know that one of these is probably darker, but the difference is so small that I would assume that they’re the same colour.”

 

“Purple is the best colour in the world,” Clint declared, putting down the last pile of papers.

 

“Wrong, red is the best colour,” Natasha refuted, frowning at Clint.

 

“Romanoff is right. Red is the best colour,” Tony agreed, pouting at Clint and turning to Stevie. “Tell Barton he’s wrong.”

 

“I can never choose between red and blue, but since I didn’t use to be able to see purple, I like purple now too,” Stevie said, hiding a smile at the look of betrayal Tony sent her.

 

“Twenty bucks says that red will be your kid’s favourite colour,” Tony declared.

 

“Twenty says purple!” Clint immediately jumped in.

 

Natasha snorted, “Watch the kid like neither and pick green.”

 

Stevie laughed, “You’ve all got a bit of time before anybody is going to know the result of that bet. I’ve got five months to go.”

 

Tony shrugged, then tilted his head curiously. He shuffled over to Stevie and squinted slightly. Stevie ignored him and focused on colouring her illustration.

 

“Stark what are you doing?” Natasha asked as Tony poked Stevie’s arm.

 

“I just realized that Stevie’s had a really easy pregnancy,” Tony answered, “I’m going to chalk it up to the super soldier serum, but it’s still a bit strange how easy the pregnancy has been on her.”

 

“Thor did say he’d talk to his mother about blessing my pregnancy,” Stevie shrugged, “She’s supposed to be the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and motherhood in addition to wisdom, witchcraft, weaving and spinning, and household management.”

 

“Did you say witchcraft?” Tony asked incredulously, taking a step back from Stevie.

 

Clint sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote. Natasha walked over and sat next to him, stealing the remote. “Aw, remote!” Clint complained, making grabby hands which were ignored by Natasha.

 

“Yeah. She’s the one who taught Loki magic,” Stevie nodded. “Thor was very happy to talk about his family while he was here.”

 

“You done the picture you’re working on?” Natasha asked, putting an episode of Supernatural on the TV.

 

"Yeah, just finished,” Stevie replied, putting the blue pencil crayon in her hand down.

 

“Good. Go wash your hands and go to bed. You can start up again this time tomorrow, but you need an actual break,” Natasha told her.

 

“Are you ordering Captain America around?” Clint asked Natasha in confusion.  


“When I’m her best friend I get to do certain things nobody else does.”

 

“I thought I was your best friend!” Tony gasped, outraged.

 

“You’re my stepson, it’s different,” Stevie told him, smirking at the confusion on Clint’s face and the joy that erupted on Tony’s face.

 

“YES!” Tony crowed, “She’s accepted it! It only took three months! No take backs! I’m calling you stepmom forever now!”

 

“You need professional help, Stark,” Natasha sighed, while Tony started cackling.

 

“He’s been in the lab since I started drawing, so he’s probably really tired,” Stevie told Natasha, who in turn looked at Tony through narrowed eyes.

 

“Why’d you have to play me like that, mom?” Tony asked Stevie, who packed up her art supplies

 

“Stark, you got to bed before I call Pepper and Rhodey,” Natasha ordered, pointing at the door. “Both of you need sleep.”

 

“She’s mean,” Tony complained at Stevie before turning and trudging towards his room. “This is my house, she’s freeloading, she doesn’t get to tell me what to do. I can’t believe she’s using the Pepper card.”

 

Stevie stretched and got to her feet. “Bed time.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Stevie’s books were properly published by Stark Industries a month later. Most of the stories that took place before the war only had three copies made, so as to be more private, but all the others sold thousands of copies on the first day. The news was calling some of them the untold stories of Captain America and the Howling Commandos. Reporters couldn’t believe how well war was represented at a level that didn’t scare kids and at the same time didn’t ignore how bad it was, making the books an easy way to explain to kids the impact of war without scarring them for life. Of course, several people went up in arms about a children’s book that took place in a war, but they were mostly ignored.

 

Stevie had a copy of every book in her baby’s room. She was starting to pick out names for her baby. They were going to be named after their father no matter what, but Stevie was still working on a middle name for if they were a boy. Initially, Stevie was considering naming them after Howard, but one-night Tony had gotten drunk and ranted about how horrible of a father Howard had ended up being. Stevie found herself not liking the person Howard had become after she was frozen in the ice and didn’t want to name her baby after him. So now she was trying to think of anybody she would want to name her son after. The idea of naming them after Colonel Phillips crossed her mind, mostly because she knew it would annoy him if he knew, but she dismissed the idea as soon as it appeared. She was contemplating each of the Commandos, but including Bucky, three of them had been named James. That left Dum Dum, Gabe and Jacques, but with Jacques both the first and middle name would start with the letter J. So now she was choosing between James Timothy and James Gabriel.

 

For a girl it was easy: Jamie Margret, after Peggy.

 

Stevie had point blank refused to learn her baby’s gender when the doctors offered to tell her. It felt wrong for her, knowing before her baby was born. When she grew up, nobody knew what gender their baby would have, and Stevie was happy to have a name of either gender at the ready because she had read about people who were born in the wrong body online. If her child was born in a female body but was really a boy, or vice versa, she wanted to have a name to offer them to be called by.

 

When she shared this thought with Tony and Natasha, they both told her that she had a very progressive way of thinking, which Tony noted was ironic considering she was older than all the people who didn’t believe in or support transgender people. That of course didn’t amuse Stevie.

 

A few days after that conversation with Tony and Natasha, Stevie went out for coffee with Natasha and Pepper. It didn’t take long for paparazzi to find them, clearly having staked out the Tower and were waiting for them to leave.

 

“You’re paying more attention to the paparazzi today that usual,” Natasha commented, lowering her sunglasses to look Stevie in the eye. “You’re not looking at them, but you are more obviously aware of them. What’s on your mind?”

 

Stevie fought to suppress a smirk and raised her voice enough so that the paparazzi could here her, “Oh, it’s just I was thinking of how I might show I am accepting of my child if they come out as transgender or gay! Maybe I should illustrate some children’s books on the topics of gender and sexuality?”

 

Immediately there was an explosion of flashes as photos were being taken of Stevie.

 

“Oh my god Stevie,” Pepper said in horror, while Natasha fought to keep from smirking as well. “This is going to be a PR nightmare. I thought I told you to stay away from political and polarizing statements!”

 

“That’s a good idea Stevie! I’m sure I’ll be able to find people who want to share their stories you could talk to,” Natasha said, making sure her voice was loud enough for the paparazzi to hear her too.

 

More camera flashes. Pepper sighed and took a sip from her coffee.

 

“I’m sure Stark Industries would be willing to cover the legal fee should any bigots try to sue you about the books,” Pepper said, raising her voice as loud as Stevie and Natasha. “It’s wonderful how accepting you are of the LGBTQ community considering what decade you were born in.”

 

“I lived in Brooklyn, Pepper,” Stevie replied while more and more camera’s flashed, “There were lots of folks around. They identified each other through the Wizard of Oz, and I got into quite a few fist fights protecting people getting beaten for lovin’ someone.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“I can’t believe you did that,” Tony laughed, throwing down at least twenty different magazines and news papers, all of them talking about Captain America’s stance on the LGBTQ community and how she would accept her child being trans.

 

“I prefer not to have questions hurled at me, so loudly discussing my beliefs in front of paparazzi has just proven to be an effective way to get the word out without being shouted at by reporters,” Stevie shrugged, smirking at the one magazine that included the outrage from anti-LGBTQ groups who had been using her name and how they were now renouncing her. “Look at this one: ‘we renounce her.’ They make it sound like I was a deity they worshiped until I made them suffer the plagues of Egypt. Serves them right for using my name when they didn’t actually know what I believe in.”

 

“You should get Twitter,” Tony suggested, smirking at Stevie.

 

“Oh, no! No, don’t get Twitter,” Pepper snapped, waving her arms in a stop motion. “Stick to telling the paparazzi, it’s too easy for you to pick unnecessary fights on Twitter!”

 

“Unnecessary fights?” Stevie frowned, “I happen to believe every fight I pick is a necessary fight.”

 

“And that’s why you used to get beaten in back alleys,” Natasha pointed out.

 

“I don’t like bullies.”

 

“We noticed,” laughed Tony.


	6. Fragile Tempers

At this point, being pregnant was starting to visibly affect Stevie. She would get up in the middle of the night to sate cravings of Cheetos in soup or yogurt, pickles covered in marshmallow fluff, ice cream and potato chips, and honey covered grapefruit, much to the occasional disgust of certain people in the tower. She spent more time sitting and reading or watching movies than working out in the gym because she was starting to waddle when she walked.

 

Due to how visibly pregnant she was, the team was starting to be more careful around her, much to Stevie’s chagrin. Every time she was told to take it easy in the gym, or to stay at the Tower while somebody else got what ever food she was craving, Stevie’s temper would flair, but after minor grumbling, she would stop pushing herself or let somebody go get what she wanted from the store. Unfortunately, the frequency of the team trying to make sure she took it easy was getting too much for her. It kept making her feel as if she were in her pre-serum body, when she wasn’t physically strong, and everybody treated her like glass.

 

“Stevie, you don’t need to carry that heavy box, let me,” Clint offered, catching sight of Stevie picking up a box of acrylic paints.

 

“Oh, it’s no problem, Clint. This box isn’t even that heavy, it’s just paints.” Stevie dismissed with a half wave of on of her hands before she adjusted her grip on the box.

 

Clint reached forwards to take the box, “No really, Stevie, let me.”

 

And Stevie snapped.

 

“I’m pregnant not invalid, Barton!” Stevie barked at him angrily, “I can carry one box, damn it!”

 

Clint froze in shock, Tony looked up from the tablet he had been tapping away on while sitting on the couch, and Natasha put down the coffee pot she’d been pouring into a cup.

 

“I think Cap’s starting to exhibit mood swings,” Tony commented quietly.

 

“I’m not being hormonal! None of you are letting me do anything! I’m not made of glass, I’ve still got the serum, so I’m still the strongest person in this room!” Stevie ranted at them. “Stop treating me like I’m weak!”

 

“We’re not doing that, Stevie,” denied Natasha, “We just want to help you out because pregnancies and childbirth are hard.”

 

“Yeah, you can tell us to get lost if we seem like we’re smothering you,” offered Tony.

 

“You can carry that box,” Clint told her sheepishly.

 

Stevie rolled her eyes, “Damn right I can carry this box.”

 

She walked out of the room and took the elevator to her floor. Placing the boxes of paints in the room she’d turned into and art studio, Stevie let out a tired huff. Looking around at all the boxes of art supplies, Stevie decided to apologize for snapping at Clint.

 

Stevie guiltily shuffled back into the elevator and to the main floor. “Clint, sorry I shouted at you.”

 

“Mood swings,” Tony repeated in a stage whisper. “First she’s angry, and now she’s feeling guilty trying to apologize.”

 

“Stark if you don’t quit talking about mood swings, I’ll punch you in the face,” Stevie informed him kindly, in a pleasant tone with a smile.

 

“I’ll be shutting up then,” Tony narrated, “This is me, shutting up.” He mimed zipping his lips shut as if with a zipper, then locking them and throwing away the key.

 

“No hard feelings, Stevie,” Clint said, ignoring Tony. “Sorry we made you feel incapable of doing things.”

 

“Thanks, Clint,” Stevie smiled.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

They really should have expected it. Tony, Natasha, and Clint had enough enemies on their own, but all together in one place made them seem like easier targets, especially when they had a pregnant Captain America to look after.

 

Unfortunately, none of them expected it, so when Stark Tower was suddenly attacked, by the Wrecking Crew of all people, they were unprepared.

 

Stevie was in the kitchen with Bruce, brewing tea for the both of them when the Tower shook so hard and so suddenly, that Stevie was knocked off her feet. She dropped the tea kettle when she fell, and hot water spilled across the counter. Bruce just barely managed to catch her before she hit the floor, pulling her back away from the hot water now running off of the counter. The Tower slammed into Lockdown, the lights turning red, and JARVIS sounding alerts.

 

“The tower is under attack,” JARVIS announced.

 

“Are you alright?” Bruce asked her worriedly.

 

“Four enhanced individuals have breeched the Tower’s initial defenses,” JARVIS informed them.

 

“I’m fine,” Stevie replied carefully getting back onto her feet, “Come on, we have to go help defend the Tower.”

 

Bruce moved to stand in her way and held his hands up in a halting gesture before she could walk out of the kitchen.

 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about? You’re eight months pregnant! You’re not going into battle against four guys with super powers!” Bruce told her seriously.

 

“The Tower is under attack! Our home is being attacked!” Stevie said, waving a hand at the red flashing lights.

 

“So that means you’re either going to the panic room I most definitely know Tony built into this building or evacuating!” insisted Bruce, “You’re not supposed to be an active operative right now, and you’re too pregnant to step in for a moment!”

 

Of course, that was the moment that Bulldozer burst through the wall to Stevie’s right. Stevie let out what she would maintain to be a short shout of surprise, but Bruce insisted was a scream of fear, and try to cover her head from flying debris from the wall. Bulldozer charged at them, and Bruce Hulked out.

 

Hulk roared, grabbing Bulldozer mid charge by the shoulder and throwing him back through the wall he came from, moving his body to shield Stevie.

 

“It appears we have a Code Green,” JARVIS announced serenely. “The Hulk is currently defending Captain Barnes in the kitchen.”

 

Stevie looked at the hole in the wall that Bulldozer had been thrown back through in shock as Bulldozer got back up and crawled back through the hole. Stevie backed away slowly.

 

“I need my shield,” Stevie told the Hulk.

 

“No,” Hulk growled, “Hulk Smash. Cap hide.”

 

Stevie gasped in shock at the fact Hulk had just spoken to her and ordered her to hide. She stepped back several feet and rushed to the living room, flinching when Bulldozer was thrown from the kitchen, through the living room, and through the reinforced windows Tony had put in after Loki.

 

Hulk roared again, rushing into the living room and turning to see Stevie. He bent down, and carefully scooped her into his hand. Stevie grabbed a hold of his thumb as he picked her up with one hand and lumbered through the hole in the kitchen wall Bulldozer had originally created.

 

“The individual known as Bulldozer has been thrown through several walls and a window, and the Hulk is carrying Captain Barnes in the direction of the Hulk containment chamber,” JARVIS informed the building.

 

“Hulk what are you doing?” Stevie asked as Hulk placed her in the containment chamber.

 

“Cap stay safe. Hulk smash,” Hulk told her seriously, leaving her in the containment chamber.

 

The buttons to close the door were too small for his fingers, so he ripped part of the metal floor up to wedge into the door of the containment chamber. Stevie gaped at him in shock as he essentially locked her in time out.

 

Stevie stood in the containment chamber, glaring out the window that allowed her to see the rest of the lab that the containment chamber was in. Finally, after what felt like three hours, but was probably only an hour, Tony flew into the room, closely followed by Hulk, Natasha, and Clint.

 

“Let me out of here!” Stevie snapped, pointing at the giant piece of metal locking her in there.

 

Hulk grunted and walked forwards, ripping the metal out of the way and scooping her into his hand again. Hulk gently set her on her feet next to Natasha and started shrinking back into Bruce.

 

“Ugh, is everyone alright?” Bruce groaned, grabbing a sweater off of a nearby chair and using it as a skirt.

 

“Hulk told me to hide then put me in time out!” complained Stevie.

 

“Wait, he talked to you?” Tony and Bruce asked at the same time.  


“Yeah, twice. I told him I needed my shield and he said ‘no, Hulk smash, Cap hide,’ then he took me here and said, ‘Cap stay safe, Hulk smash’ and shoved a giant piece of metal in the doorway!” Stevie complained, “I wanted to help!”

 

“You’re eight months pregnant, though!” Clint spluttered.

 

“That’s what I said before that super strong battering ram burst through the wall,” Bruce said, waving his arm at Clint while looking pointedly at Stevie.

 

Stevie pouted, “Our home was under attack.”

 

“If you took a single hit from one of those guys while pregnant, you would have needed to be taken to the hospital for an emergency c-section because they would have killed the baby, super soldier serum or not. One of them hit Hulk hard enough he flew through a stairwell and into the offices on the other side,” Tony said analytically, laying down the facts.

 

“What we’re all saying is we know it sucks, but you have to sit the fights out from now until the baby is born,” Natasha summarized.

 

“Fine,” Stevie grumbled, wrapping her arms around her stomach. “It’s just that the Tower was under attack and I couldn’t do anything.”

 

“Hey, one more month and you’re going to be busy looking after Junior wishing that you were being told to sit everything out,” Tony chuckled, shaking his head. “Now, if we are all in good health, I must survey the damage done to my Tower.”

 

Tony left, and Stevie followed Clint and Natasha to her floor. Clint immediately flopped face first onto the couch, and Natasha raided Stevie's fridge for water bottles. Stevie sighed and grabbed sat down next to Clint on the couch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Are you drawing Bucky again?” Natasha asked with a slight frown.

 

Stevie looked up from the sketch in her notebook. “Yeah.”

 

Natasha tilted her head. “He’s looks really familiar to me, but I’m not entirely sure why.”

 

“His face has been plastered all over film and print since the forties,” Stevie shrugged, “That could be why.”

 

“Yeah, probably,” Natasha agreed with a slow nod. “You really miss him.”

 

“I do really miss him. We were supposed to be together until the end of the line, but I guess the end of the line just came too damn soon,” Stevie said, clearing her throat before her voice could break.

 

“It’s been less than a year for you since he died. You don’t have to pretend you don’t need to cry in front of me,” said Natasha in a hushed voice. “Tell me about him.”

 

Stevie closed her eyes. She could talk about Bucky forever.

 

“He was the best husband in the whole wide world. He didn’t care that I didn’t like dressin’ up in dresses and skirts. He never got really mad about the back-alley fights, ‘cause he married me for me and didn’t wanna change me,” Stevie said, noticing her Brooklyn accent bleed into her words. “Stuck with me through sickness after sickness, stayed by my side every night; stayin’ awake the whole night when doctors said I wouldn’t make it. He didn’t care that before the serum we wouldn’t be able have kids because he said he wouldn’t be able to lose me and the baby. He agreed to me joining Rebirth because Erskine said he’d make me healthy. Didn’t fight me when I kept tryin’ to get into the army, only got worried because I was binding my chest and he didn’t think I was doin’ it properly and makin’ it even harder than it already was for me to breathe. He was always pulling me out of trouble. Always had my back.”

 

“I would have liked to meet him,” supposed Natasha, sitting down next to Stevie.

 

“I bet he would have liked to meet you too,” Stevie whispered, feeling a tear slip down her cheek.


	7. New Arrival

The damaged done by the Wrecking Crew was slowly but surely being fixed. Since the Tower’s repairs from the battle of New York hadn’t entirely been finished, the crews working on the Tower simply agreed to stay on longer and get paid extra. Stevie’s floor had luckily escaped all the chaos, with only the western stairwell being damaged.

 

The number of people in the Tower was starting to shrink. Tony had to go back to his house in Malibu, and both Clint and Natasha were still on active duty and left for missions that lasted between and afternoon and a week. Bruce and Stevie ended up being the only people living in the Tower full time.

 

Bruce took the time to teach Stevie about the science and important events she missed while in the ice.  Stevie was blown away by the moon landing. It seemed that everything she had thought was science fiction had been true. First flying aircraft carriers, holographic computers, and aliens, now people going to the moon, and an entire international space station? Bruce tried, and failed, not to laugh at the offense Stevie took to Pluto losing its planetary status. In her defence, Pluto had been discovered in 1930, so it had been big news. Seeing as Bucky was so into science and had been extremely excited about the ninth planet, she reserved the right to be offended in his defence.

 

SHIELD Agent Maria Hill started to visit more often. She had a sarcastic and dry humour that made her mesh well with Stevie and Natasha, when they spy was there. The two SHIELD agents had discovered that Stevie was actually quite devious when she wanted to be while helping them plot pranks on other SHIELD agents. It made sense in retrospect, considering her position on the team and her history, but everyone seemed to forget she was dangerous.

 

She was starting to be more…comfortable in the future. Sure, politics frustrated her, and she got overwhelmed by the sheer cultural differences she faced everyday, but she was starting to appreciate the things she was learning and how far some things had advanced. Stevie soon discovered that the advancements she appreciated the most was the advances in medicine.

 

It was around lunch when she started getting contractions. Tony was busy with…something he wasn’t talking about, and both Natasha and Clint were supposed to be arriving that evening from a mission. Bruce luckily was good at keeping a cool head in medical situations, so Hulk didn’t make an appearance, and he was more than prepared when Stevie started counting the minutes between contractions in the middle of making lunch.

 

The seemingly random pains made Stevie remember the near constant dull pain, and the random sharp pains she’d felt pre-serum. Before she knew it, she was shorter and standing in the kitchen of her Brooklyn apartment with her bad back and feet, her whole body aching from walking to the grocery store and back twice so as to help Mrs. O’Keily with her shopping and do her own.  What the most alarming thing though, was that she was still pregnant in her pre-serum body.

 

“JARVIS, notify the team and Stevie’s SHIELD doctors that she’s going into labour,” Bruce said, moving from the other side of the kitchen island to stand next to Stevie.

 

That was strange, because there wasn’t a kitchen island in her Brooklyn apartment, and Bruce hadn’t been born and JARVIS built.

 

“Right away, Sir,” JARIVS replied.

 

“Stevie, calm down for a second, please. You’re fine, you’re strong enough to have this baby,” Bruce said. “You’ve already carried them to term. You’re going to survive the childbirth. You’re in the Tower. It’s twenty twelve, Christmas is next week.”

 

Stevie blinked and she was in the Tower again. “What the hell was that?”

 

“Panic attack. They’re not all hyperventilating,” Bruce explained gently.

 

“SHIELD is currently sending Captain Barnes’ doctors,” JARVIS reported, “Agent Hill is in bound as well.”

 

Bruce nodded to himself. “Come on Stevie. You need to get to the infirmary. If the pregnancy so far has been any sign, and if the predictions the medical team assigned to your pregnancy shared with me are true, this is going to be a very quick birth.”

 

“Right,” Stevie muttered, making her way to the elevator slowly, Bruce sticking to her side.

 

Before either Stevie or Bruce could say anything or press any buttons, JARVIS immediately took them to the floor they needed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bruce and the medical team’s predictions were correct. The birth was very fast and easy. In just an hour, Stevie was holding her baby girl, little Jamie Margret Barnes. The doctors all said she was healthy, which was good, and showing signs of having the super soldier serum in her, which Stevie didn’t know whether it would be good or bad. Good because she’d be the healthiest baby in the world, but bad because tantrums would be a nightmare and SHIELD, and less favourable others, might spend her entire life trying to recruit her.

 

At the moment however, Stevie was exhausted and just happy to finally see her baby girl.

 

Maria walked into the room, smiling at Stevie and closing the door behind her. “Romanoff and Barton are in bound, so is Stark, but he says he can’t stay long. Banner is currently laughing at all the people who are commending him on not loosing his cool when he’s had to deliver at least five babies in ghettoes and third world countries while acting as a traveling doctor.”

 

Stevie let out a small chuckle, rocking Jamie in her arms gently. “It’s as if everyone forgets that he spent half his time with Tony, who actively tries to find out what would trigger a Code Green.”

 

“You’re not worried about the Hulk around Jamie,” remarked Maria, narrowing her eyes. “Why?”

 

“Aside from the amazing control Bruce has? Because Hulk didn’t hurt me while I was pregnant. He purposefully moved me to a safe place away from the battle and protected me with out orders,” Stevie explained, slightly shifting in the bed. “I just know that he’ll be gentle with and protect my daughter. I think for a rage monster, he might actually be a pacifist.”

 

“That’s an interesting theory, but one nobody wants to test out,” Hill said, folding her arms over her chest, just as the door flew open.

 

Tony swept into the room and let out a hushed gasp. “She’s so cute!” he whisper-shouted, “Is she sleeping?”

 

Maria caught the door before it slammed shut. Tony shuffled up to the bed and made quiet cooing noises.

 

“Stark you sound like a pigeon or a dove.”

 

“For now, yeah. Meet Jamie Margret Barnes, Jamie, meet your Uncle Tony,” Stevie said, ignoring Maria’s comment and smiling at Jamie before looking up at Tony. “Do you wanna hold her?”

 

“No, no, I’m terrified I’ll break her!” Tony said, backing away.

 

“If it makes you feel better about holding her, she’s got the super serum in her,” Maria told him, raising an eyebrow.

 

Tony spun around quickly to look at her. “Are we sure?”

 

“Yes,” Maria nodded. “She’s more developed than a normal newborn, who was born exactly on the due date. Everything about her is going to be advanced for her age until she’s in her twenties. Then, like her mother, she’s going to stay in peak physical condition for who knows how long.”

 

“Looks like there’s not only one super soldier in the world. There’s two now,” Tony chuckled, reaching over and gently stroking Jamie’s head. “Congrats, Step-mom. Heads up little Jamie, I’m going to be calling you my little sister as often as possible. I’m going to take a picture and send it to Pepper.”

 

Tony lifted his phone and snapped a picture of Stevie holding Jamie, with Jamie being the main subject of the image. “Say cheese!”

 

“Cheese.”

 

“Done, and perfect. Sent to Pep too. Sorry to bounce, but I left a project alone that I really shouldn’t have,” Tony said, “See you both very soon.”

 

With that, Tony slipped out of the room.

 

Maria dipped her head. “I think I’ll leave you to rest until Barton and Romanoff appear.”

 

“Thanks, Maria.”

 

Stevie closed her eyes and held Jamie close as soon as Maria left the room.

 

“Oh baby, I wish you could meet your daddy. He’d be so happy to see you,” Stevie whispered, opening her eyes and pressing a kiss to Jamie’s head. “He’d be so good at taking care of you. He’d patch you up every time you fell down and hurt yourself. He’d nurse you back to health when you got sick. He was always good at looking after his sisters, he’d take such good care of you. I’m so sorry you won’t get to meet him.”

 

Jamie made a little whining sound and yawned, nuzzling in closer to her mother in her sleep. Stevie smiled at her. Only a few minutes later, Natasha crept into the room, Clint in tow.

 

“May I hold my goddaughter?” Natasha asked in a quiet voice.

 

“Of course,” Stevie responded, “She’s sleeping right now.”

 

Natasha smiled warmly, carefully pulling Jamie into her arms when Stevie passed her to her. Jamie yawned again.

 

“Oh, aren’t you precious? I’m you’re Aunty Nat. Standing next to me is your Uncle Clint,” Natasha said to Jamie, turning so Clint could get a better look at her.

 

“She’s so cute,” Clint said, a smile growing on his face. “Almost makes me want to offer to help change diapers.”

 

“I’m going to hold you to that anyways,” Stevie warned him, causing him to gasp in fake outrage.

 

“Fury’s coming in.” Natasha reported, “He wants to see her, too.”

 

“What do you think his reaction to me referring to him as Uncle Nick will be?” Stevie wondered, smirking as Clint snickered.

 

“I think he might actually allow it. He like cute things, and Jamie is most definitely the cutest little baby in the world,” Natasha pondered, slowly passing Jamie back to Stevie.

 

Clint walked over to the door, “Get some rest, Stevie. You’ve had an eventful day.”

 

“Thanks, Clint, Natasha.” Stevie nodded at each of them in turn as they slipped out the door.

 

Jamie let out a quiet sigh. Stevie smiled at her baby, Bucky’s baby, and didn’t feel quite so alone.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The press release about Jamie was short and handled by Natasha. Stevie watched it on the news.

 

Natasha stepped up to the podium that Stevie had stood at when her pregnancy was announced and calmly waited for the reporters to calm down.

 

“Jamie Margret Barnes was born three hours ago. She’s healthy and one of the cutest things any of us have ever seen,” Natasha announced.

 

“How is Captain Barnes?” a reporter near the front asked.

 

“She’s fine. A little sore and tired, but she did give birth,” Natasha replied. “Stevie is very happy to see her daughter.”

 

With that, Natasha nodded once and walked away. The news immediately returned to the anchors, and they chattered about Jamie, how excited they were to get a look at her since the Black Widow had called her cute.

 

Stevie turned off the TV.


	8. Closer to Home

Jamie’s first Christmas was both eventful and uneventful. This was due to the Tower seemingly spontaneously being put under lockdown.

 

Bruce stood in the kitchen making a stir fry, with both Natasha and Clint away on missions. Stevie was yawning while sitting on the couch, watching It’s A Wonderful Life, when the windows were suddenly lined with metal and the elevator stopped running below the hundredth floor.

 

“Alert: The Tower has been placed under Lockdown!” JARVIS announced. “Mr. Stark’s Malibu home had been destroyed and Mr. Stark is alive, but his location is unknown. Please remain calm.”

 

“Telling us to stay calm isn’t going to help us stay calm!” Bruce shouted at the ceiling angrily, finishing up his stir fry. “Food is ready, Stevie.”

 

“Tony needs help,” Stevie frowned.

 

“Help we can’t get him because he locked us in the Tower and has a habit of dropping off the grid or giving away everything he owns whenever something insane happens in his life.” Bruce rolled his eyes and dished out the stir fry. “Also, we’re locked in this Tower until further notice. I feel really bad for all the staff who were working. SI has a twenty-four-hour work force.”

 

“Bruce! Why aren’t you more concerned about this?” Stevie exclaimed, gawking at him when he handed her a bowl of his stir fry.

 

“Because we won’t be able to bust out of here without making considerable damaged without Tony,” explained Bruce. “You just gave birth, so you should not be trying to fight whoever managed to blow up Tony’s house. If the Tower is under lockdown, then we could be in danger as well.”

 

Stevie glared at him. Bruce sighed.

 

“Look, Stevie, I know you light to act, but right not the only thing we can physically do is wait.”

 

Stevie worried the entire time they were under lockdown.

 

The Tower had been under lockdown for a week when the inhabitants and staff locked inside were informed by JARVIS that Tony destroyed almost all of his suits. Needless to say, Tony’s return to the Tower, due to his house being blown up, had some tense moments.

 

“You could have called for help,” Stevie lectured, while nursing Jamie. “Bruce, Natasha, Clint, and I would have come running! Thank god you included Rhodey! We would have all come and helped you! SHIELD would have sent personnel too!”

 

“Stevie you just gave birth, there’s no way I’d ask you to fight exploding fire nation super soldiers,” Tony replied calmly. “Also, you don’t get to lecture me about recklessness.”

 

Stevie spluttered at him in indignation, shooting Clint a glare when he laughed out loud. Natasha managed to keep a straight face.

 

“I made sure you were safe, especially with a new born baby, by putting the Tower under lockdown,” Tony said, “I made sure you were all safe.”

 

Stevie let out an annoyed huff, “We want you to be safe too.”

 

“That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”

 

Stevie wordlessly grumbled, moving Jamie so she could burp her.

 

“Stevie’s maternal instincts have been going haywire during the lockdown,” Bruce shared darkly. “She switched the regular coffee with decaf and put blankets over all of the SI staff who fell asleep. She made me try kale chips because they’re healthier than potato chips and I ‘wasn’t eating enough while in the lab.’”

 

“I had to do _something_ ; I was feeling helpless!” Stevie complained, rolling her eyes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jamie grew quickly. Stevie spent everyday with her daughter. They went to the park regularly, and Stevie took her to the gym whenever she went. They visited libraries, and the labs in the Tower. Bruce and Tony were only too happy to tell Jamie about their projects, even if she couldn’t understand them.

 

Jamie started teething early, at half a month. She started talking early too, at just five months starting to say “mama” and becoming a parrot by seven months. Tony got in trouble swearing in front of her after dropping a wrench on his foot because she repeated the expletive for the whole day. Jamie also started walking at seven and a half months.

 

Stevie was overjoyed to see that her love of art was passed on to Jamie. Stevie could sit in her studio sketching or painting while Jamie sat beside her scribbling on different pieces of paper in different colours. Sometimes it looked like she was trying to copy what Stevie was painting or sketching.

 

Everyday Jamie looked more and more like her parents. She had Bucky’s smile and eyes, but Stevie’s hair and nose. She had Bucky’s laugh. Stevie almost cried the first time she heard Bucky’s laugh coming out of Jamie’s mouth.

 

While Stevie loved staying at home and looking after Jamie, she really missed going out on missions. This was something that was obvious to Nick Fury during his frequent visits to the Tower.

 

Fury didn’t blink an eye when Jamie started calling him “Unca Nick!” and begging him to play with her. It was an interesting sight to see the either stoic or angry director of SHIELD playing with a stuffed dog to amuse an almost nine-month-old baby. Too everyone’s surprise, Nick didn’t swear in front of Jamie.

 

Everyone was a little uncomfortable with Fury’s frequent visits at first because they assumed he had a mission for them, but since he did not, it put them on edge. Eventually even Tony became accustom to seeing Nick Fury in the kitchen.

 

It wasn’t until a month after Jamie turned one that Fury offered Stevie a job as a “consulting asset” at SHIELD. She’d split her time between DC and New York, working a couple missions a month, while still getting to spend most of her time with the daughter. SHIELD was willing to provide childcare while she was on a mission, but she was also allowed to chose alternate childcare options.

 

Stevie accepted the job.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Her apartment in DC was a small two-bedroom place, already set up to be similar to her apartment in the Tower by the time Stevie arrived with Jamie. Jamie liked the apartment well enough, but she and Stevie were both reminded that the apartment itself was not built with super soldiers in mind like the apartment in the Tower when Jamie managed to put her foot through a wall when she didn’t want to put away her toys before bed time. From that moment on both Stevie and Jamie worked on controlling how much strength they used, even when angry.

 

Stevie’s new team that she worked on with Natasha more often than Clint, was called STRIKE team alpha, and was used primarily for counter-terrorism and occasionally intel gathering. Brock Rumlow, the leader of the STRIKE team when Stevie wasn’t there seemed to go out of his way to be friendly to Stevie and on the rare occasion Jamie came with her to the Triskelion, friendly with Jamie too. Jamie didn’t like him very much, so Stevie made sure to keep him at a fair distance.

 

“Hello Barnes. Hey, kiddo!” Rumlow greeted with a wide smile, nodding at Stevie as he walked onto the elevator with Stevie and Jamie.

 

Stevie offered a small smile. “Hi, Rumlow.”

 

“Hi,” Jamie said, tightening her grip on Stevie’s hand slightly.

 

“Is your mom bringing you into work today?” Rumlow asked, kneeling down to her level.

 

“We go see Unca Nick,” Jamie replied, watching Rumlow with a firm, unimpressed, and defensive look that was so very Bucky.

 

The look definitely intimidated Rumlow because his eyes widened slightly and he coughed uncomfortably, breaking eye contact with her. He noticed a drawing of what was supposed to be a horse but looked more like a frog in Jamie’s right hand.

 

“What do you have there?” Rumlow asked, pointing at the drawing.

 

“A horsey for Unca Nick,” Jamie said, pulling the picture closer to her chest, the same intense look locked on her face.

 

“It looks cool! Do you like horses?”

 

Jamie continued to glare. “Yes.”

 

Stevie stifled a chuckle at the deadpan single word answer and the intense look that Jamie was aiming at Rumlow. She was even holding herself like Bucky did right before he jumped into a fight. Almost as if he recognized the posture, Rumlow backed off.

 

“Little spitfire you’ve got there,” Rumlow commented, smiling at Stevie.

 

“She wouldn’t be mine or Bucky’s if she wasn’t. I swear she looks more like him everyday,” Stevie replied, looking at Jamie fondly. “That look on her face right now is all Bucky. It usually meant somebody was going to get a beat down.”

 

Rumlow nodded, the smile slipping off his face and being replaced by something slightly worried for a moment. The elevator stopped at the records floor.

 

“This is me,” Rumlow nodded, “Have a good day!”

 

“Bye,” Stevie nodded, while Jamie glared, baring her teeth at him while Stevie wasn’t looking. “You really don’t like him.”

 

“Don’t like him,” Jamie agreed, nodding and letting the cheerful attitude she’d had before Rumlow’s appearance return. “We go see Unca Nick today.”

 

“Yes we will.”


End file.
